This is the XFL Show Episode 35: Why is Your City an XFL City?

This week we open the XFL Fan Line so our listeners can state their city’s case for being an XFL city in 2020. The reaction and enthusiasm for the XFL is overwhelming and the callers are highly entertaining. Listen along with Alan, Vince and Jake and you be the judge this week as we hear some of the most passionate XFL fans explain why their cities are the best XFL cities.

2 Replies to “This is the XFL Show Episode 35: Why is Your City an XFL City?”

That was a piss poor argument for Raleigh. As a Raleighite I’m embarrassed and an going to give a better argument than Rick did (sorry Rick it won’t be hard). First off in your previous podcast you spoke about Greensboro which is a city I’d also brush aside because it’s not big enough and has no viable place to play and is generally just kinda boring.

Raleigh-Durham (or the Triangle as it’s locally known) as a region has a population of almost 2 million people. It is a rapidly growing area with people from all over the country choosing to settle here. These transplants come with their own college teams and pro teams already cemented with little room to change despite the long tradition of football in the area.

Currently the Triangle is home to 3 ACC football programs within a 20 mile radius; UNC, Duke and NC State, 2 of which have made a run to the ACC championship game within the past 5 seasons. The youngest of these three programs is 126 years old. If you look an hour east, East Carolina has also had success in recent years over their almost 90 years of existence. Each team has their own history and customs and hate for one another.
On a given fall weekend in the area you’ll find over 200,000 football fans in their four respective stadiums and probably several thousand more tailgating in the parking lots.

The Triangle also has excellent high school football and is home to the likes of Heisman Candidate Bryce Love (Stanford) and projected first round draft pick Dex Lawrence (Clemson).

Out-of-towners however don’t have a football team to call their own and it’s hard to plug into the collegiate football culture having no real connection with the respective universities. The new XFL Raleigh Rebels will be that team. It will embody the North Carolina football traditions of the past while being a rallying point for football’s future. The Rebels will be the team that natives and transplants alike will be able to embrace and support together.

Raleigh has an easily accessible and recently rennovated 57,000 seat stadium which sits empty for all but about 12 days a year, Carter-Findley. Now that they’re allowing alcohol sales in the building there’s no reason a pro-team wouldn’t want to play but there. Knowing all of this, the real question is why shouldn’t the XFL shouldn’t take a long look at putting a team in Raleigh?